James Powers “Jim” Moody, was born on September 2, 1935 in Richlands, Virginia to Jane Johnson Moody and James P. Moody. He graduated from Anglo American High School, Athens, Greece in 1953 and went on to earn his BA at Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania in 1957. Moody then put his educational pursuits on hold in favor of volunteering with CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) as a Field Representative in Yugoslavia and Iran, 1958-1960, and with the Peace Corps as Country Director in Pakistan. Upon returning to the United States, he returned to school to earn his M.P.A. in 1967 from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He worked as an Economist for the U.S. Department of Transportation, 1967-1969, and went on to earn his Ph.D. in economics in 1973 from the University of California-Berkeley.
After receiving his Ph.D., Moody accepted a position as Associate Professor of Economics at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1973, where he remained until the successful launch of his political career as a Democrat in 1976. He served on the Wisconsin State Assembly (1979-1982), the Wisconsin State Senate (1979-1982), and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as Wisconsin's 5th congressional district representative for five consecutive terms (98th-102nd Congress : January 3, 1983-January 3, 1993). He married lawyer Janice Lee Boettcher in 1991.
While in Congress, Moody served on the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee (98th-99th Congress), Public Works and Transportation Committee (98th-99th Congress), and Ways and Means Committee (100th-102nd Congress) and various subcommittees. He also participated as a Congressional delegate in the U.S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Talks, served as co-chairman of the Congressional Roundtable on U.S.-Soviet Relations, chairman of the Congressional Coalition on Population and Development, and co-founded the Congressional Budget Task Force Group.
Moody's Congressional career came to a close when his candidacy for nomination to the U.S. Senate for the 103rd Congress was unsuccessful.
Since the 1992 election, Moody has returned to teaching, provided financial advice, and worked with various non-profit organizations. He served as: Deputy Director of the team that prepared President Bill Clinton's first federal budget (1992); Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the UN agency International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome, Italy (1995-1998), President and CEO of InterAction (1998-2000); Senior Financial Advisor at Morgan Stanley (started 2000); Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland (started 2004); Financial Advisor and Vice President at Merrill Lynch (started 2005); Associate Director for Investments at Oppenheimer (started 2012). Moody has also served on several boards of international development and educational agencies, including Junior Achievement Worldwide and Relief International, as well as on economic policy boards, including the Committee for Economic Development and Americans for General Equity.
